Croydon's Conservatives have blasted the Labour council's waste collection policies as "a complete and utter shambles" after dozens of people were stuck in queues outside overloaded recycling centres during the middle of the day.

Phil Thomas, the Tory's shadow cabinet member for waste, claimed tailbacks seen last Monday outside centres in Roman Way, Purley Oaks, and Fisher's Farm were a direct result of the council's decision to scrap free garden waste collection.

But his Labour counterpart Stuart Collins hit back at the criticism and dismissed suggestions the policy was to blame for the queues, but promised a review of how the borough's three recycling centres operated was already underway.

The Labour administration ended free collection of garden waste last November in an attempt to save £1.5m, blaming cuts to local government funding.

More than 14,000 people have since signed up for a new paid-for collection system.

RELATED: More than 10,000 households sign up for paid-for garden waste collection

But Cllr Thomas, who described the scenes last Monday as "total chaos" after visiting the centres with Conservative leader Tim Pollard, said: "People are taking their green garden waste to the three recycling centres - and they can't cope.

"It's a complete and utter shambles. This Labour council didn't think of the consequences when they threw out the green garden waste."

More than 50 cars could be seen queuing outside the centre in Purley Oaks on Monday, with "frustrated drivers doing three-point turns to try to escape and bringing traffic to a standstill", according to Cllr Thomas.

He added "Once again they [Labour] made the wrong choices. They kept a lot of pet projects - when they've got a loony lefty idea..."

"This is of their making because they never really thought this through. I think that Collins needs to listen."

But according to the Labour cabinet member, council figures showed there had only been a 0.31 per cent increase in garden waste at recycling centres since free collection was scrapped.

RELATED: Croydon Council promises to stop fining people for leaving rubbish at overflowing recycling centres

Less than a quarter of households in Croydon require garden waste collection, according to the council, despite it previously being funded by a universal charge.

Describing claims the policy was to blame for last week's queues as "way off the mark" and "just opposition for opposition sake," Cllr Collins said his team were looking into a number of different ways to improve waiting times at the centres - including extending opening hours on peak days while closing on quieter ones.

He said: "There's always been queues outside recycling centres and there is in every centre across the country.

"We already had this under review. What we're doing is trying to reconfigure the centres to work in a better way."

Other ideas under consideration include electronic waiting board times, live video streams of queues and the removal of parking bays in Roman Way to ease congestion outside the centre, Cllr Collins said.

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A Croydon Council van was among the vehicles caught up in queues outside the Roman Way centre

Surveys are to be issued to drivers outside the Purley Oaks centre in coming weeks about the centre's operation.

But Cllr Collins warned that reconfiguring centres to allow for extended opening hours would inevitably result in temporary closures.

Pressed on the cause of last Monday's queues, he suggested the "nice weekend" may have been to blame, adding: "Even if it was to do with the green waste service, would you rather sit in a queue for two hours or pay 60 quid and get it picked up at your door? It's a no-brainer.

"We dispose of far more waste now than we did before. If everybody goes at the same time, there's very little we can do about that."

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